Navigation

Pete Choquette's blog

You know, living out of town, I haven't had the opportunity to see Rick Peckham and Bobby Taylor's broadcasts of the Penguins series. Now, as anyone who has read my game posts knows, I do enjoy the occasional meta-critique of the other team's announcers any time I get their feed on Center Ice. In particular, folks know how I feel about Atlanta color man Darren Eliot, the Carolina crew of Forslund and Tracy, and some of the members of the Buffalo Sabre's broadcast team (not Rick Jeanneret, but on-ice reporter Rob Ray and studio personality Mike Robitaille). But, as this is the playoffs, I didn't want to detract from what was going on by chastising the media. As John Tortorella said in the Flyers series in 2004 when Ken Hitchcock tried to goad him into a media spat by making an off-color remark about Tortorella's heritage, it's not about anyone off the ice. It's about the athletes.

However, now that the series is over, I can stop biting my tongue about Penguins color-man Bob Errey. I would've never thought that anyone could supplant the uber-pompous Darren Eliot on the Mount Olympus of NHL broadcasters I can't stand, but after having to watch the Pittsburgh Root Sports broadcasts for 6 of the games in this series, I can now say Bob Errey is now the uncontested champ. I have never in my life heard a broadcaster who was so thoroughly unobjective, so thoroughly disrespectful to the opposing team, and so thoroughly nonsensical about it. I made the decision as the series progressed that play-by-play man Paul Steigerwald probably isn't that bad. He has a level of bias, but I suspect with a normal color man beside him he wouldn't be any worse than the average NHL broadcaster. But Errey? How can Root Sports pay a man this unprofessional?

In general, there was the unqualified praise of Penguins players, the constant whining about officiating going against the Penguins (tell that to Marty St. Louis' front teeth), and the portrayal of Lightning players as heartless, talentless, brainless clods. That was bad enough. When a Penguins player would put his arm down on a Lightning player's stick to induce a hooking call, that would be "savvy." When a Lightning player would do the exact same thing 5 minutes later, suddenly it would be a gross miscarriage of justice perpetrated by those devious, dirty, shifty Lightning players (who 10 minutes later would be reclassified as heartless morons). Fine. That's annoying, but that's not any worse than Eliot, Forslund, or Tracy. Heck, at least the Pens have won something. One of the central parts of my critique of Eliot has been the undeserved sense of entitlement he and the Thrashers organization operates with given the fact they have a whopping 0 playoff wins in their franchise's entire history. The one solace I had after Game 4 of this series was that even if the Lightning lost Game 5, they still would've had more playoff wins in ignominious defeat than the Trashers have had... ever. But, I digress.

No, what elevated Errey to his perch atop the landfill of NHL broadcasters can be summarized by three instances from this series:

The Tampa Bay Lightning announced today that they made some final alterations to their jerseys before sending them into the NHL.

After some fairly pointed criticism from the Lightning fan base, the team stepped up and added back their familiar lightning bolt to the sides of their pants and black trim around the bolts and their numbers. Lightning fans didn't get to keep their celebration stripes, and the amount of black being added to the uniform is more modest than other proposals on the internet, but getting back the bolts on the side of the pants was one of the two most important features that were a point of contention. I give credit to the Lightning fan base for showing their ownership they cared enough about the team's tradition to fight for their colors, and I give the ownership the credit for having the wisdom to reach a compromise. After being steamrolled for almost two decades by ownership groups with commitment to the fan base that ranged from detachment (PS&E) to outright disdain (Koules and Barrie), Lightning fans finally have an owner who legitimately puts the fans and the product first. It's refreshing.

Not that anyone necessarily cares, but here's my two cents on the Lightning's rebranding: I think it misses the mark by a wide margin. So far, it seems like the overall reaction from the fan base has been unfavorable by a two to one margin, and it certainly evoked an unfavorable reaction from me. Now that I've had a little time to think it over: there's a couple of reasons why.

This organization should be very proud to have a man who is not only a good coach but also a man who's not trying to be an amateur politician sugarcoating a ridiculously bad call. I'll be happy to throw something in the pot to help pay the fine, too. It's two hours later and I'm still angry.

Just out of curiosity, I went through the Lightning's all-time statistics to see where Mike Smith and Dan Ellis' current save percentages rank amongst the all-time most horrible performances in Lightning history. Sadly, I may have written one of the most depressing blog posts in the history of BoltProspects in the process. Amongst Lightning goaltenders who have appeared in at least 10 games in a given season, 33 have had sub .900 save percentages, including Smith and Ellis this season. If you're wondering, the all-time worst goaltending performance in Lightning history was JC Bergeron's .832 save percentage in 1995-1996. For his part, Dan Ellis has the uncomfortable distinction right now of being tied with the immortal Dieter Kochan's 2000-2001 performance with a .870 save percentage.

The list of netminders the Lightning have had who have appeared in 10 or more games and posted a .900 or better save percentage is sadly and decidedly smaller. Only 14 netminders have accomplished that feat in a Lightning jersey, and Mike Smith and Daren Puppa did it by the skin of their teeth both last season and in 1997-1998, respectively.